Complex Sites

Get Your Weekly Digest

Search

COMPLEX participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means COMPLEX gets paid commissions on purchases made through our links to retailer sites. Our editorial content is not influenced by any commissions we receive.

Ethereal

A decade or more back, there wasn't much rap you could even conceivably call "ethereal"—a genre dominated by guys talking tough over drums tends not to evoke delicate, otherworldly beauty. But from the neo-new age sound beds Clams Casino has produced for Lil B to the haunting soundscapes of Noah "40" Shebib's work on Drake's albums, there's been a lot of celestial ambiance in the air for the last few years. Whether or not you're an avowed follower of Cloud Rap, or even know what it is, its wide reaching influence has probably seeped into your listening habits by now.